Saturday, December 15, 2012

Do You Hear What I Hear?

“I think I hear sleigh bells,” my dad would say every
Christmas.We’d scurry to our
bedrooms and pretend to be fast asleep.Being the oldest of four, I knew Dad was the one who went outside and
attempted to make reindeer tracks in the dirt.We didn’t have a fireplace, so Santa had to come in through
the door.The important thing was
that he came.

How my mom and
dad managed to give us such joy and the very thing we wanted when the raft shop
where my dad worked at the local air force base paid ninety cents an hour.We thought we were in hog heaven when
he brought home the canned rations every now and then.Each one had a candy inside, and the
crackers weren’t bad either.I
can’t recall a Christmas that didn’t put a permanent smile on my face and joy
in my heart.

Although Dad
was Jewish and didn’t believe in the reason for the season, he was always the
first to shake the presents beneath the tree.We always vowed to wait until Christmas morning to open
gifts, but he was the culprit behind the “let’s open just one.”

Sure, one turned into two, and before we knew it, we sat
amongst opened boxes and a landslide of wrapping paper, happy with what we’d
received, but disappointed that once again we’d failed to wait until
morning.So the tradition
continues.Christmas eve is our
time to celebrate, and I’m always urged on by my father’s voice in my head,
telling me now from heaven, “just open one.What harm can it do?”Oh, we still have our Christmas dinner on the day of, and as a
Christian, I celebrate the birth of Jesus, and I will be forever thankful for
the parents he gave me.

We weren’t rich in the financial sense, but in love we were
millionaires.I’d give anything to
have one of those Christmas Eves over again, and hear my Dad’s voice for real.He’s been
gone for over twenty years now, but if you’re listening Daddy, your little girl
loves you with all that she is, and I miss you still.You’ll always be in my heart, and in your honor, I’ll always
open just one on Christmas Eve…or maybe all.

Oh, Ginger! Memories! My family always opened presents on Christmas Eve too, not in a mad flurry but one at a time so all could see EVERYTHING! Christmas morning was for Santa Claus and Christmas day for Christmas dinner and "And there were in the same country shepherds watching over their flocks..."

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